It’s not that often we get a new operating system release, but today is special because we are getting two. While Microsoft is rolling out Windows 8.1, Canonical has made Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander available to download.

Ubuntu 13.10 is a little different because the focus hasn’t really been on major improvements to the desktop version. Instead, Canonical is rolling out version 1.0 of mobile Ubuntu for smartphones. However, support is quite limited right now, with the only officially supported devices being the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4. If you want to try it on a tablet, then the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 are your best bets. Full details of which devices work and how well they work can be found on the Ubuntu wiki.

As you can imagine, pushing a stable mobile version of an operating system out the door requires a lot of work, so desktop users upgrading from 13.04 to 13.10 today shouldn’t be expecting too much. There’s the usual default app upgrades including Firefox, LibreOffice, and RythmBox. However, the planned move from X11 to the Mir display server has been pushed back to a later release due to technical difficulties (although the mobile version will use it).

The only really significant addition to Ubuntu 13.10 is Smart Scopes, which a lot of users may disable anyway. Smart Scopes already incorporates services like Amazon into search results on the Unity Dash. This expansion for 13.10 will see new services such as eBay, Reddit, and Wikipedia results displayed. Canonical sees this as a better way of providing appropriate content when searching, but it has raised concerns about privacy and an ongoing debate about just how useful it ends up being.

The server version of 13.10 is also out today. Mark Shuttleworth claims it’s the ” fastest, most flexible platform for scale-out computing” as it uses the latest version of OpenStack. The big draw for business users is the ability to run more services on fewer machines, which should save on costs. You apparently only need 5 servers to run a full OpenStack cloud on 13.10.